In the beginning of 2015
I travelled across most of China
Photographing a group of Chinese countrymen
Who built airplanes at home to realize their dreams
I saw a report earlier
They were not wealthy, but quite romantic
I was really curious to find out
Where such passion came from
How did they overcome technical and safety problems
And how did they balance between reality and dreams
I called local people
And even visited the villagers
The circle is not too big
As long as you find one, you will be able to contact others
Xu Bing is kinda of a chief engineer in the circle
He had the dream of flying at age of 18
And it took him 14 years to really fly up to the sky
At the age of 32, he flew in the airplane built by himself
The flight lasted for 25 minutes
He bought the engine online
And the seat was from a car
The wings, body and rotor wings were all made by himself
The total weight of the airplane was 130kg
According to him, the cost was around 30,000 yuan
After the photographing
I decided to fly with Xu Bin
In the open-air cockpit
We were not equipped with parachutes or protected by any safety measure
I saw the lakes underneath shining in the reflected rays of the setting sun
We flew over fields and mountains
I was quite nervous
He was like a child
He really enjoyed the moment
And I was also influenced by him
He showed me his museum of homemade airplanes
He collected a dozen of homemade airplanes
He planned to build runways and hold exhibitions in front of the museum
Building airplanes is their life
And they’re totally indulged in it
Paying efforts that ordinary people cannot imagine
They were all self-taught
They used common materials
Such as bamboo at the roadside and clothes used for farm work
They’d been building for one or two decades
Lots of people couldn’t understand them
They even saw them as lunatics
Wang Qiang refueled his motorcycle with jet fuel
He was mocked by the workers at the petrol station
Then he flew his airplane to the petrol station for refueling
He transformed a yacht’s motor
And made the propeller with wood
Jin Shaozhi was quite old
His family contacted the transportation bureau guys secretly
Trying to stop him in the test flying
Some successfully flew up to the sky
But some didn’t
Some even got injured in a crash
And they have to lie in bed
I asked one of them, “Do you still want to fly an airplane?”
He said, “Of course”
He lied in the bed
Dreaming of flying his airplane again every day
Over the city of Foshan
After the photographing, I sent my book to all of them
And sometimes we chat on WeChat
Most of them continues building airplanes
Through the series
I want to show people a world full of fun and creativity
I was born in Qingtian county, Zhejiang, and it’s known as the home to many overseas Chinese
When I was 14, my mother brought me to the Netherlands
The country was so strange to me, and I felt isolated, lonely and helpless
I returned to Qingtian County in 2013
And I photographed the migrants’ villages there
Through photographing
I seemed to find a way to release the emotions inside
I got to make contacts with the outside world by doing different projects
In 2017, I spent one year making a trip from the Shanhai Pass to the Jiayu Pass
I took pictures of the people and their life along the Wild Wall
I travelled 25,000 km
Faced with such vastness, you could also see life and hope
Liang Qingli was born in the 1980s
He didn’t want to work outside his hometown, because he decided to protect the wild wall
Xu Guohua paid much out of his own pocket to protect the forests, repair the wall and build an exhibition hall
Zhang Heshan knew everything about the 10-kilometer-long wall
That he preserved
During the photographing
I was also encouraged to walk towards my goals
To some extent, they are similar to the people who build airplanes by themselves
They all break the rules and follow their hearts
They don’t care about fame, status or money at all
They actively find ways to solve problems
And to turn the impossible into reality step by step